I’ve been a Rockies fan since day one. Love the team. Love Coors Field.

The Rockies didn’t just trade Troy Tulowitzki. They gave him away. And they gave up the season in the process. Remember that baseball is different. There’s always the hope that something crazy and cool will happen. It happened in 2007 for the Rockies. It could have happened again. Tulo was truly one of our best players ever. A Rockie for his whole career. It makes me wonder why I should care about the team anymore or go to any games.

And I hear the Rockies want to trade Carlos Gonzalez, too. Unbelievable.

I’m guessing the only way true fans can let the Rockies know how bad they’ve messed this up is to not go to any more games. It’s gonna hurt, but that’s my plan. It would be truly great if all the true Rockies fans would actually pick a game, go to Coors Field, and then not go inside to the game. Just hang out in front of Coors Field and make a point. It would make quite a statement.

Chris Deutsch, Denver

This letter was published in the July 30 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

Judy Lubow of Longmont, RTD director for District I, clearly states in her opinion piece what has been obvious for years: that the proposed Northwest rail line “happens to be lengthy, not projected to have unusually dense ridership, and requires working with the railroad owning the right of way.” Yet she asks that taxpayers still fund it!

It is time for leadership to acknowledge this was always a bum steer, a lame horse, a three-legged dromedary that can’t hold its water, built by a committee that did not know how to play the game. Move on. The correct route is up Interstate 25 and arcing to Longmont over existing rail rights-of-way. This route has the developer/partners and population/ridership growth potential to warrant the effort. Boulder County has neither. Time to fold the bad hand and deal a new one.

Stephen Colby, Boulder

This letter was published in the July 30 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

Good for Jensen Bissell, director of the private-trust-funded Baxter State Park, for protecting wilderness values amidst the celebration that followed Scott Jurek’s incredible feat. [Jurek hiked the 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail in a record 46 days, 8 hours and 7 minutes.]

I go into the mountains for the experience of wildness, the beauty and peace that I find there. I understand I have to share, that others want to go too — and so there are often many other hikers on the trails, particularly lower down making their way up as I am on my descent. I hurry off the mountain then, the solitude broken.

It is all the things we carry with us from the non-wilderness into the wild that are so distressing and destructive, from plastic and cans to off-road vehicles.
It is wonderful that more people want to enjoy the wilderness. But please, just enjoy it for what it is, as it is — do not diminish or destroy it.

Bonnie Mandell-Rice, Broomfield

This letter was published in the July 29 edition.

The original intent for protected public lands was certainly not today’s “Zeitgeist of adventure” or commercial gain. Changing public values have created a new class of user that desires a wildlands amusement park adventure. I don’t know which is worse: the mountain bikes or all-terrain vehicles.

One of the most insightful posters to come out of the 1970s environmental movement showed comic strip character Pogo summing up the gist of the environmental problem: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pogo was a wise possum.

Thomas J. Straka, Pendleton, S.C.

The writer is a professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation at Clemson University.

This letter was published in the July 29 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

Douglas County School District Superintendent Liz Fagen, front right, answers questions during a press conference about the Colorado Supreme Court ruling the Douglas County School District’s controversial school voucher program unconstitutional in a split ruling on June 29 at the state Supreme Court. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Letter-writer John Murphy’s claim that vouchers aren’t the answer to current problems with public education is wrong. Vouchers are the answer, particularly for poor kids.

Giving vouchers to low-income kids trapped in the worst-performing schools located in impoverished neighborhoods so they can attend better schools, be they public or private, will dramatically increase their access to a quality education.

Murphy criticized Douglas County’s Board of Education for supporting a voucher program that he says “advocates an elitist approach of undermining the public school system.” Vouchers allow poor children to escape failed schools, almost all of which are concentrated in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Dougco Board of Education members should be thanked and congratulated for their humanity and their concern for what is best for all students.

If voucher opponents are so concerned about “social diversity,” “common values,” “common culture,” and “associating with the majority,” they should send their kids to the failing schools they would deny their victims the opportunity to escape.

Steve Schuck, Colorado Springs

This letter was published in the July 29 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal addresses the media during a news conference at the Grand 16 Theatre in Lafayette, La., July 24. (Paul Kieu, The Daily Advertiser via The Associated Press)

Following last week’s shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Ted Nugent said that now is not the time to talk about gun control measures.

This seems to be the common response following a shooting by those opposed to gun safety measures and was also heard following the Charleston shootings. My question to them is: When is the proper time to discuss this matter?

All their response does is postpone action on the implementation of measures that may save lives.

David Ryan, Montrose

This letter was published in the July 29 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

I find it unbelievable that the prosecutor’s office cannot find charges in the recent shooting of a 7-year-old boy in Aurora. It is certainly negligent to leave a 12-year-old unsupervised in a house. It is even more negligent to have a child in a house where there is a handgun in a jacket pocket with ammunition readily available.

I am a gun owner. All of my firearms are stored in a locked gun safe. The fact that the gun used in this shooting was in a jacket pocket tells me the owner does not know how to safely store a gun.

Why are so many people carrying guns around? Why do they think guns are the way to solve problems? There are sensible gun regulations that do not infringe on the Second Amendment, yet can make the world a safer place. We need legislators who are not afraid of the NRA to enact sensible gun laws and we need a prosecutor who will charge people when they are negligent with regard to owning firearms.

John Stiles, Centennial

This letter was published in the July 28 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

I have read with increasing astonishment the comments from those opposed to the use of organs taken from aborted fetuses for medical research. As the mother of a stillborn child who might have lived if more had been known about her condition, I support all research that might save a mother the anguish I suffered. And for this support, letter-writer Randy Fabrizio tells me I will burn in hell forever, at the direction of a supposedly loving and compassionate God. How appalling that any Christian would think this.

Abortion is always a tragedy, although sometimes a necessary one, and I salute Planned Parenthood for finding a way that some good may come out of it.

Sara Gadeken, Evergreen

This letter was published in the July 28 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

While reforming Social Security, let us also talk about funding it adequately by removing the wage cap on withholdings. Besides providing the much-needed funding, it would equalize the percentage of tax to total wages between middle- and upper-income earners.

To those legislators who signed Grover Norquist’s no-new-tax pledge, I would say that I have never seen Norquist’s name on any ballot.

Bob Green, Westminster

This letter was published in the July 28 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

Finally, a story in the daily paper worth reading and smiling about. Your story about Air Force cadet Brett Hagen asking Taylor Swift to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Ring Dance next May was great. I downloaded the video and watched with co-workers today. Fun stuff.

Good luck, Cadet Hagen. I hope she says yes.

Aaron Skoff, Arvada

This letter was published in the July 28 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

Craig Cleve, left, marches with members of the Chicago Teachers Union as they picket outside City Hall to protest $200 million in planned public schools cuts on July 2, one day after the district paid a $634 million pension bill officials said it couldn’t afford. (Christian K. Lee, Associated Press)

What I found most interesting about this article was the absence of a debate. The article featured two entrepreneurs (code for pro-business) writing about the deficits in the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA) pension fund. Interestingly enough, there was a letter to the editor titled “PERA was a promise in exchange for lesser salaries” the same day, which spoke the truth.

We need to reverse the negative trend on workers’ (private and public) retirement programs, and start investing in a system that provides security for all who earn it. There used to be a time when the vast majority of companies (private sector) provided a pension to their workers. Boeing recently decided to eliminate pensions for all new employees. The CEO recently retired, and will receive $3.9 million in annual pension payments for 15 years. Hmm.

“Business interests” now want to eliminate public-sector pensions. When will it end and America wake up to the war on our economic livelihood?

Mike Erickson, Highlands Ranch

This letter was published in the July 27 edition.

First, I am not a PERA member, but am a seasoned investor. With this background, I found the criticisms of Henry Duboff and John J. Huggins flawed and disingenuous. My main criticism is their claim that PERA’s 7.5 percent assumed rate of return on assets is unrealistic

Like most large pension groups, PERA invests in diverse assets. Much of PERA’s portfolio is in common stocks, many of which have returned in far excess of the 7.5 percent target (e.g. Google, Apple). This is true of the stocks of many household names (e.g. Disney, Walgreen’s). True, some of PERA’s other holdings may return less (e.g., bonds), but achieving at least 7.5 percent over the long term is really not that difficult. I have actually achieved this myself with my own investments — and I lack PERA’s bargaining power over brokerage and other investment charges due to its size. Indeed, PERA has achieved 9 percent over the long term.

For the experts they claim to be, Messrs. Dubroff and Huggins should do their research before spouting off their predisposed solutions.

Howard Buchalter, Englewood

This letter was published in the July 27 edition.

Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.

Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.

To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

Recent Comments

peterpi: I think I have this correct: Voters in Jefferson County elected school board members that the superintendent...

peterpi: Sounds good to me. For future employees. I believe police and fire dept. brass have also been known to get...